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Your First Session
A walk-through for the Referee, from a brand-new world to the Company standing on its first Realm. Each step is short and links to the page that covers it properly.
A new world opens the Welcome to Mythic Bastionland window for the Referee the first time it loads. It shows only in a world that has never been set up and holds no Actors, Scenes or Journal entries, so a world already in play never sees it. Closing it once, by any means, stops it opening by itself again. To open it later, use Open the Welcome in Foundry's Configure Settings, or the Welcome button on the Referee Toolkit's Settings page.
The window has two columns.
| Part | What it is for |
|---|---|
| Your Rulebook | Bring in your own PDF of the book. See below. |
| The Company | How many Knights have followed the call, and Knight Those Subjects to make them. |
| Solo Mode | Tick it if you are playing alone. See Solo Play. |
| Where Things Are | A short list of where Knights, Realms, Sites and the Referee's tables are made. |
| Skip the Tours | Stops the two Realm Tours starting by themselves. |
| Make Your First Realm | Shown while the world has no Realm yet. Closes the Welcome and starts New Realm. |
| Done | Closes the window. |
The system ships with none of the book. Under Your Rulebook, click Choose the PDF and pick your copy. The system keeps a copy to read in Foundry and imports the art and tables: every Knight's, Seer's and Myth's picture, the Spark Tables, and the compendiums of Arms and Goods. If another world on the same server already brought the PDF in, the Welcome says so and imports from that copy by itself, with nothing to choose.
You can do this later instead: Import PDF sits in slot 9 of your hotbar, and the Rulebook button in the Journal tab offers the same. Everything about this step is on Bringing In Your Rulebook.
A new world also whispers the Referees a few cards in chat:
- Your Rulebook, with an Import PDF button (left out when the book is already here).
- Your First Realm, with a Create a Realm button that starts New Realm.
- Recommended Modules, naming Dice So Nice!, Sequencer and JB2A, SoundFx Library, FXMaster and Tokenizer, with a Manage Modules button. It is left out when every one of them is already on. See Installing and Recommended Modules.
Each player needs a Knight. You have two ways to give them one.
- From the Welcome. The count under The Company follows the players signed in who have no Knight yet. Step it with - and + (1 to 12) if you want more or fewer. Knight Those Subjects makes that many blank Knights, names each one for the player it is given to, and opens it on that player's screen so they can choose. Knights nobody is signed in for wait in the Actors tab; give one away with Played by on its sheet.
- Players make their own. By default, Players and Trusted Players may create Actors (you can take that back in Foundry's permissions), and a player's Create Actor offers a Knight only.
Either way, the player then rolls or picks their Knight from the book. See Choosing a Knight.
Click New Realm at the top of the Scenes tab (or Make Your First Realm in the Welcome, or Create a Realm on its chat card). You are asked whether to Roll it, Draw it myself, or Import a map I drew. For a first session, rolling is quickest:
- On The Realm page, give it a name. The seed can stay as it is.
- On The Company page, leave Place the Company on the map ticked and choose the Company's Start: Wanderer, Courtier or Ruler. Pick a picture for the Company Token if you like.
- Click Roll the Realm.
- The Keep this Realm? window opens at the foot of the map. Click Roll again until you like what you see, then Keep this Realm.
The Realm Key, with every Myth, Holding and Seer, is whispered to the Referees. Players never see it. Every way of making a Realm is on Making a Realm.
One Token stands for the whole Company. It belongs to no Actor, so every player can move it.
- A Courtier Company starts at the Seat of Power by itself.
- For a Wanderer or Ruler Company, you are handed the Token to carry. A faint copy follows the pointer and snaps to the hex under it. Left-click a hex to stand it there. Right-click or press Escape to put it down later.
- Whenever a Realm has no Company Token, a Place the Company button stands over the top edge of the map for the Referee. Click it to carry the Company again.
If the Token is ever deleted, a card whispered to the Referees offers Put them back. More on Travels and Places.
The system uses Foundry's Tours to point at the buttons you need first.
- Your First Realm plays when you first close the Welcome, if no Realm exists yet. It opens the Scenes tab and points at New Realm.
- The Realm's Buttons plays once the world's first Realm is made. It points at the two buttons beside the sidebar: the footprints (Mark the Hexes Visited) and Places.
The second Tour waits until you have finished placing the Company, so its overlay never takes that click. Tick Skip the Tours in the Welcome to stop them starting by themselves; the choice is kept in this browser, for every world you open in it. Either Tour can be played at any time from Foundry's Tour Management window.
Once the Realm is on screen:
- The Phase, Season and Age hang as one bar at the top of the screen for everyone. For a Referee, clicking it lets down Next Phase, Weeks Pass, Months Pass, A Year Passes and End the Session. See Time, Phases and Seasons.
- Travel sits on the left of the map and Rest and Exploration on its right, with the rules and the Referee's roll buttons. See Exploring the Wilderness.
- The footprints and Places buttons stand just left of the sidebar. See Places and the Lay of the Land and, for players, Travels and Places.
- The crown in the scene controls holds the Referee's Realm tools. See Painting and Editing the Realm.
The system fills the first page of each hotbar once, moving anything already there to free slots.
| Slot | Referee | Player |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Referee Toolkit | Attack |
| 2 | Rulebook | Places |
| 3 | New Site | Timeline |
| 4 | Luck Roll | |
| 5 | Attack | |
| 9 | Import PDF | |
| 0 | End the Session | Luck Roll |
The 6 key opens the Spark Tables for a Referee. In a solo world the Referee also gets Places and the Timeline. Every macro and key is listed on Macros and Hotkeys.
- The Referee Toolkit: your own sheet, with the Myths, Places and Time pages.
- Exploring the Wilderness: what happens as the Company moves.
- Ending a Session: the window in slot 0.